The invention relates to a lute having a bulging sound box tapering to a virtual point and a neck attached to the so-called stock or upper block to one side of the point. The neck comprises a fingerboard furnished with frets. At its free end, the neck bears a peg box. The sound box consists of the vaulted back of the lute, its rim always curved outward from one side of the neck to the other and lying in a plane. The sound box comprises a face whose edge is connected to the rim of the back. The face, on its under side towards the back of the lute, is provided with spreaders or fan beams, hereinafter referred to as laths, and transverse ribs. On its top, opposed to the under side, the face is furnished with a tailpiece, connected to the third of the face centerline farthest removed from the neck and in its lengthwise extent transverse to the centerline. Between the peg box and the tailpiece, a plurality of strings are stretched. In the half of the centerline near the neck, in the region of the strings, one or more apertures are made between the upper and under side of the face.
In Claus Martius, Leopold Widhalm und der Nürnberger Lauten-und Geigenbau im 18. Jh., a publication of the Institute for Synthetics Technology and Conservation in the Germanic National Museum, vol. 4, Verlag Erwin Bochinski 1996, we have the latest stage of development of the lute in the 18th Century. A lute, then, has a bulging sound box tapering down to a virtual point, where a neck is attached. As part of the generally known prior art, the neck comprises a fingerboard furnished with frets and bearing a peg box at its free end.
Concerning the lute dating from the 18th Century, it is known further that the sound box consists of the vaulted back of the lute, its rim always curved outwardly from one side of the neck to the other. The edge of the back lies in a plane. The back of the lute is covered with a face whose edge is connected to the rim of the back.
The face, like almost all parts of the lute, is made of wood. The direction of the grain of the face is parallel to its centerline. This means that new and old wood in the face form nearly straight stripes, substantially parallel to the centerline of the face.
The familiar lute is provided with seven transverse ribs, lying transverse to the centerline and hence in particular transverse to the grain of the wood of the face. Thus, the preponderant area of the under side of the face is provided with transverse ribs. In about a quarter of the area of the under side of the face away from the neck there are provided fan ribs. The axis of these fan ribs have—if any—a common point of intersection, located in the third of the centerline of the face furthest removed from the neck.
Specifically, an approximately common point of intersection lies in the neighborhood of a tailpiece arranged on the top of the face. In fact, this tailpiece is located in the third of the face centerline farthest removed from the neck. It is connected to the face on this centerline and in its lengthwise extent transverse to the centerline. Between the peg box and the tailpiece, several strings are stretched. The classic stringing consists of 13 strings tuned A-B-C-D-E-F-G-A-d-f-a-d′-f′. The first ten of these strings are double. Only the d′ and f′ strings are single.
From José L. Romanillos, Antonio de Torres, Ein Gitarrenbauer—Sein Leben und Werk, Verlag Erwin Bochinski, we learn of Antonio de Toffes' construction of about 1850, still used for concert guitars today. Such a guitar comprises a face and a back, connected to each other by a frame. The frame has a pronounced waist, so that both face and back follow this conformation. In the neighborhood of the waist, a transverse rib is arranged. In addition to two more transverse ribs in the part of the face near the neck, this known guitar is also provided with two oblique laths in the part distant from the neck. Between these oblique laths and the ribs in the waist area of the guitar, additional laths or so-called fan ribs are arranged, the parts designated as laths occupying only about {fraction (1/10)} of the cross-sectional area of the parts referred to as ribs. About in the middle between waist and far end of the guitar, the end piece is attached to the top of the face. Between the end piece and the peg box located at its free end, six strings tuned E-A-d-g-h-e′ are stretched.
The present-day guitar, developed in Spain in the middle of the 19th Century, is undoubtedly one of the most popular musical instruments of the age.
Nevertheless, for European music it represents only a stand-in for the lute.
Since the 15th Century, the lute has become one of the most important tonal implements of western musical literature. Many famed composers left works behind that had been written for the lute. But these works today can hardly or only inadequately be rendered on the guitar acting as stand-in, for which reason they have largely lapsed into oblivion.
The reason for the displacement of the lute from today's orchestras is to be found in that nearly all orchestral instruments have accomplished a definite development in the past few centuries, while the lute has not. As a result, the lute lacks volume, it is very complicated to play, has limited expressiveness and an antiquated notation.
In printed source U.S. Pat. No. 1,361,182, a stringed instrument is described that comprises a body having a substantially closed frame around an upper and an under side. However, the upper and under sides are each convexly vaulted. This instrument has no transverse ribs or laths, and the body departs from the typical lute shape, so that this instrument will yield a sound differing distinctly from that of the lute.
German Utility Design G 88 08 073.0 describes an instrument representing the structure of a guitar as described above.
The object of this invention, then, is to lend the lute a conformation such that it will meet modern concert conditions and become accessible, while retaining its outstanding tonal properties, to present-day guitarists, thus making possible a reintegration of the lute into the orchestral apparatus of today.